Melt your loved one's heart with molten berry cake

photos by Aimee Blume / Special to the Courier & Press
Sprinkle the finished cake with powdered sugar and use cocoa and a simple stencil to add hearts around the edge. Finally, fill the center with a few fresh berries and enjoy.

Using a silicon cupcake cup or other nonstick mold, freeze berries and a little corn syrup to make a hard puck. Dip this into melted chocolate to cover.

Pour a small amount of cake batter in the bowl and top with the chocolate-covered berry filling.

If there’s one time of year you want to impress your sweetie with your cooking skills, it’s probably on Valentine’s Day. You know, the day of romance, the day of thoughtful presents, the day of elegant candlelit dinners ... No pressure or anything.

In sympathy with folks who don’t cook much but want to butter up their loved one once a year with a spectacular, romantic dessert, we came up with a foolproof recipe for a hot berry-filled chocolate cake that looks like it must have taken endless hours, but is actually done with a box of chocolate cake mix, berries, and chocolate chips.

You’re welcome.

The hardest part of this recipe is finding the right container to bake the cake in. Use a large round latte cup or upright salad bowl, 12 ounce ramekin ... anything you can find that is the right size (about a cup and a half to a cup and three quarters) to hold a dessert for two people. Just make sure it’s ovenproof and that it is not covered with lead glaze.

For baking experts, feel free to use your own favorite chocolate cake recipe instead of the mix.

Super Simple Molten Chocolate Berry Cake

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup fresh mixed berries or frozen and thawed berries

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1 box devils food cake mix

- oil or butter and eggs as specified on the cake mix

1/2 cup good quality chocolate chips or almond bark for melting

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 teaspoon cocoa (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1 Mix the berries lightly with the corn syrup. Divide the mixture in half. Line a cupcake tin with nonstick foil, or use a silicon cupcake mold as pictured, and press half the berries into the mold. Set the other half aside for later.

2 Freeze the berries in the mold until they are firm. In the meantime, melt the chocolate chips or almond bark. Dip the frozen berries, in one chunk, into the chocolate, using a spoon to make sure the surface is entirely covered. Return to the freezer. The chocolate coating does not have to look pretty.

3 Do not grease your shared special dessert bowl. Do grease a round cake pan or 8” square cake pan for baking the leftover mix. Preheat oven to 350 degrees or whatever temperature is specified on your mix.

4 Mix the cake batter as directed. Pour a 1-inch layer into the bottom of your special bowl. Place the chocolate covered berries in the center, then pour more batter over, leaving at least an inch at the top of your bowl for the cake to rise. Tap the container gently on the counter to make sure there are no air spaces in the batter.

5 Pour the remaining batter into the prepared cake pan.

6 Bake according to package directions. The cake with the berries will probably take a little longer than that in the flat pan. When the top feels firm and springy to the touch, it will be done. While the cake is baking, use a piece of clean paper to cut out a little heart stencil.

7 Let the berry cake cool slightly. The center will collapse and you’ll see chocolate berry sauce in the center. Fill the hollow with the rest of the fresh berries.

8 Using a mesh strainer or other screen, sprinkle powdered sugar over the surface of the cake. Gently place the heart stencil over the powdered sugar, and, using the same strainer or a paintbrush, sprinkle cocoa over the heart cutout. Remove the stencil gently and repeat as often as you like around the edge of the cake.

9 Enjoy while the sauce is still warm. Enjoy your extra chocolate cake over the next couple of days.